Didn't get much sewing done this weekend, but did get a lot of work done on my logo! I've been chipping away at it for a while with the help of my brother in law, the talented Will Nunes, and this weekend I finally nailed down the last of the details. One final step in the process was choosing a color that would translate well onto fabric because I know I want to have custom quilt labels created. To make sure they look just right, I ordered the color maps and fabric swatches shown here from Spoonflower. If you're into textile design, needing just the right robots for your next baby quilt, or want to transform that photo of your island vacation into a dress to wear all year, and somehow you haven't heard about the amazing options they have (fabric, wall paper, wrapping paper, decals...), go check them out! Have you ordered your own custom fabric or paper from Spoonflower already? Leave a link to your creation in the comments!

Here's my weekly Pile O' Fabric Stash Share. This week was hard because I have virtually no sable, caramel or earth in my stash - the apple print is literally my only brown:
(l-r) Glimma by Lotta Jansden, unknown, Oh Dear! by Momo, unknown, unknown, Sketch by Timeless Treasures.

I'm sure you can all relate. Great idea, rolling along, missing that one last piece you need to finish up? That sums up my day yesterday. On Sundays my husband takes the kids for most of the day so I can have uninterrupted studio time, and I had a few different projects lined up to tackle, so I was expecting a very productive day... and it was, sort of. Everything got worked on, but nothing got finished because I soon realized that I "just needed one little thing" for each of them. In an effort to procure those one little things, I then took my kids with me for a quick trip to Joann's - not only did I not find everything I was looking for, but one of my kids threw the biggest fit she's ever had in public. Of course she commenced about ten seconds after I had fabric cut, so I couldn't just walk out of the store with her, and had to stand in line miserably ruining the lives of all the other customers who didn't "WANT TO GO TO THE PLAYGROUND RIGHT NOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!" and weren't sobbing and screaming about it. 

So I have three great little projects all 90% complete that I can't wait to share with you soon, but here's something I can share now - a store lead! In trying to find the very last of the one things this morning, I visited a new-to-me quilt store in Freeport ME. Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop is easy to find right off the highway, and nicely laid out and staffed, though I found their selection to a bit less than I'd hoped; I was trying to find a specific piece of the Baby Jane fabric to finish up the back of the doll quilt from Saturdays' post, but they didn't have the line, and didn't seem to have much new/recent Moda that I've had my eye on. Not that that stopped me from finding enough fabric for two new projects, though ; ) They do sell Handi Quilter machines and offer classes and studio time, so I will likely be back soon to take a better look at those! 

I'll leave off with a little quilt stash eye candy ; ) I'm joining in Pile O' Fabric's Weekly Stash Share, and here's my pic for week 12:
(l-r) unknown, Gingham by Michael Miller, Outfoxed by Lizzy House, Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter, unknown.

Baby Jane by Eric & Julie Comstock for Moda that is! I received a free mini charm pack in a Westwood Acres shipment a while back (if I haven't said it before, I will now - I *love* that store! Great fabric selection, cheap shipping, and lots of fun freebies : ) and finally unwrapped it this week and laid out the fabrics. At first I wasn't excited because the collection isn't in a color palette I usually gravitate toward, but now that I have a doll quilt top pieced, I love it! Sort of wishing I hadn't had it up on my design wall all week because my girls are getting gorgeous new dolls from Oh, Juniper! for Christmas, and this would have made an awesome quilt for one of them - even matches the colors and motif of the doll beds they already have. Might have to invest in a bit more of the fabric and create something similar on the sly.

Continuing the baby theme, we also got some positive news from our adoption agency. They've been undergoing a lot of growing pains since we started working with them - reorganizing and rebranding their services, relocating their offices, and replacing their adoption coordinator. We haven't heard anything since we became a waiting family this spring, and a little doubt about the process was starting to creep in; we knew some changes were in the pipeline when we signed, but a few others were surprises and we wondered if our profile wasn't being shown because of our choices or their many changes. This week we attended an open house at their new location and met the new coordinator - who we love, but the best part was that the first words out of her mouth were, "Great to meet you! I was going to call you tomorrow and let you know we sent out you profile multiple times this week!" We're not getting our hopes up quite yet (the average wait time for placement into a family like ours that already has kids is 18-24 months, so we were fully prepared for a long haul when we began), but it was a welcome sign that the ball is still rolling and we feel a renewed sense of excitement!

Somehow a week of camping turned into a month of unintentional "vacation" from my sewing machine. How'd that happen? I thought that with my husband's return I'd be a busy bee in my office, but it was more like "hmm... what fun family thing can we do today?" and then when my in-laws took the girls for a few days it was "hmm... what fun kid-free things can we do today?" (We finally checked ziplining and the Portland Museum of Art off our bucket list!) As much as I had hoped for a more productive end to summer via sewing, I have to say that I'm just as happy for the very productive month of family memories we made instead : )

With school starting this week for everyone but me, it means jumping back into a really nice tidy scheduled routine - the one where I get big blocks of uninterrupted time to sew! Yesterday marked my first day of work [in way too long] and I created these birds for our dining area off the kitchen. I painted an accent wall a while back and have been trying to decide on something whimsical for the walls since the room is so informal (what with the fridge usually hidden under an avalanche of kids' art and not nearly enough storage to have the counters clutter-free). A picture my daughter brought home from school served as my inspiration piece; her multicolored bird seemed like a great applique idea! And except for the background, I was able to whip them all up with scrap fabric - double bonus!

(Even double-er bonus? I finally found a use for this blah onion fabric that's been rotting in my stash. I bought a fat quarter set of veggies a while back for the wonderful tomatoes and peppers, but I had no use for this piece for till now. Of the eyes, beak, and feet, I'm most pleased with how the feet turned out. Now the only problem is what to do with the rest of the still mostly intact fat quarter??)

Ta da! The new view when we're pecking away at dinner:

On a side note, I used an online color tool for the first time on this project. I don't have a hard time coordinating fabrics, but I pull wayyy too many pieces from my stash in the narrowing down process. This time around I picked exactly what colors I was aiming for up front and then only pulled what matched. Green was tricky because I've realized I don't have any cooler mid-greens in my stash, but I only needed a little, so I fudged it. Here's my chosen palette: Considering it was all scraps (except for the onions : P) I did well staying in scheme!